The present invention relates generally to a high speed industrial control and data acquisition system and method. More specifically, the invention relates to a system or method for converting and transferring process data from an industrial control system to a remote client application.
Programmable logic controllers (“PLCs”) or programmable controllers are used to control and automate industrial processes. Unlike standard personal computers, programmable controllers are designed for harsh operating conditions and find applications in various industries. For example, programmable controllers may be used to automate assembly lines, food industry packaging lines, oil and gas production systems, wastewater management systems, as well as many other applications. Moreover, supervisory control and data acquisition (“SCADA”) systems may make use of a network of multiple programmable controllers to centrally monitor, operate, and/or control remote systems that may be located over a large geographic area.
Additionally, programmable controllers often include special input/output (“I/O”) modules that enable sensors or transducers to interface and communicate with them to carry out control and monitoring functions. These sensors or transducers provide the necessary feedback that enables real-time control of the target process. In sum, the data received by the programmable controller or controllers from the feedback sensor, or similar feedback devices, may have significant value. For example, this data may be used for troubleshooting, optimization, product tracking, production monitoring, maintenance monitoring, scheduling, and various other control and monitoring functions.
As with many data transmission processes, that data transmission rate is often the limiting factor and impacts the overall performance of the control system. Likewise, as the volume of the process data increases, the efficiency of the control process decreases. Therefore, because automated industrial processes often generate a plethora of data, the control, monitoring, and operation of a programmable controller may be significantly impacted by the data transmission rate. In other words, slow transmission rates from the programmable controller to a remote client may not provide the real-time response required for the application. For example, current automated systems may be limited to 150-500 milliseconds average transmission rates which are often too slow for complex industrial applications. Additionally, some of these systems are programmed for proprietary operating systems that are not compatible with standard operating systems or third party applications, such as databases that could make use of the data for analysis purposes.
Therefore, there exists a need for a system or method that can provide a high speed data transmission rate from a control circuitry to a remote location. Further, it would be advantageous if the system or method could provide the high speed data rates using a standard format that is configured to ultimately be placed in a standard structured data format.